Wampum

Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of North America. The term first referred to white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western North Atlantic hard-shelled clam but has expanded to include white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell.

In New York, wampum beads have been discovered dating from before 1510. Before European contact, strings of wampum were used for storytelling, ceremonial gifts, and recording important treaties and historical events, such as the Two Row Wampum Treaty and the Hiawatha Belt.

Northeastern Indigenous tribes also used wampum as a means of exchange, strung together in lengths for convenience. The process to make wampum was labor-intensive with stone tools. The coastal tribes had sufficient access to the basic shells to make wampum. These factors increased its scarcity and consequent value among the early European traders, who understood it as a currency and adopted it as such in trading with them.

Wampum artists continue to weave belts of a historical nature, as well as designing new belts or jewelry based on their own concepts.